


A Guide to Being Stuck in An Elevator

by eliotthawke



Category: Formula 2 RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:10:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23054692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eliotthawke/pseuds/eliotthawke
Summary: this is a modified version of this prompt:I saw you trying to hit the “door close” button in the elevator but I made it in and then I pushed every single button to make you later for work, but now we’re stuck in this fucking elevator as it stops at every single floor and I don’t know what to say other than “you started it”
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	A Guide to Being Stuck in An Elevator

**Author's Note:**

  * For [g0ldendays](https://archiveofourown.org/users/g0ldendays/gifts).

> This is a work of fiction, in no way do I claim to know people portrayed in this fic or state that these are their personalities. There is no romantic plot, the dynamic portrayed is friendship so if that's not what you want to read about then you probably should keep looking. This work is not to be shared with people I have used in it as characters.

"Everyone's late, man," Rob complained as he checked his watch.

"We're not," Callum pointed out and earned himself a glare from the other two present.

"Why are we doing tourist things anyway?" Marcus piped up, rubbing his eyes and thinking it’s entirely too early to leave their hotel at a day they have no responsibilities. The mall was noisy around them, even at an early hour, and no one paid much attention to them. Marcus wished he was somewhere quiet.

"Because this is our first time in Bahrain," Rob patiently explained. "And I wanna see the view from this tower, everyone says it's nice."

"I can't believe you're dragging us to an _observation deck_," said Callum. "What are we, 75?"

"Hey," a new voice said, and Callum received a light shove in the back. "No one's forcing you to go, you know."

"Hello to you too, teammate," Callum grinned and put his arm around Guanyu. He was dressed better than all of them combined, Marcus noted, stylish jacket over a patterned long tee and ripped jeans with expensive-looking and impeccably white shoes. The rest were sporting either plain shirts and jeans or team gear (not that anyone recognized them, anyway).

Marcus saw Callum’s eyeroll at Guanyu’s fashion excesses and choked a laugh. Honestly, it’s an achievement Marcus was here and he thought he deserved a medal or a cookie because at least he had combed his hair, which was the step of the morning routine Callum had clearly decided to skip.

“Fashionably late, I see,” said Rob to Guanyu but he was smiling as they shook hands.

“A wizard is never late,” Callum suddenly decided to become Gandalf, and Marcus finished the quote with him, “Nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to!”

Rob looked confused, not getting the reference, and Guanyu just appeared bored as he eyed something behind them.

"Can I go get Starbucks?"

_Oh, yes,_ Marcus thought, _here comes the cookie._

"No," said Rob, and Marcus deflated. "The deal was, sightseeing first, food later. Or we're never gonna get anywhere."

"And that would be such a shame," Callum mumbled and got another shove from Guanyu.

"Stop being an ass."

"What are you, my mum?"

"Okay, we're going," Rob said before Guanyu could continue that riveting conversation, and Marcus's eyebrows went up.

"Wait, what about Christian?"

"He's 20 minutes late, he can catch us later," Rob deadpanned. "Seven don't wait for one."

That sent a chuckle around as they set off towards the elevator, and Callum just couldn't help himself.

"What on Earth does that mean?"

"It's a Russian proverb," Rob explained without even turning around. "Means that if we all have to wait for one person you just leave them behind."

"This is like, back in school," Marcus muttered.

"A day trip at the ass crack of dawn AND a lecture? You're right," Callum said just as quietly so Guanyu wouldn't give him another reprimand, and they snickered to each other while piling in the elevator. There was some shuffling and light elbowing, but thankfully they seemed to be the only ones who wanted to use this elevator, so it wasn't like they were holding other people up.

Rob got shoved in the corner and didn't even protest, Guanyu was assessing the state of his sneakers lest somebody had stepped on them, Callum leaned his back on the wall next to the buttons and Marcus was the last one in, turning around to face the doors.

"Look, it’s Christian!" He pointed, and they all looked up to see the familiar lanky figure just now appearing in the crowd of people who had entered the mall. He saw them too, judging by the grin on his face, and sped up his pace.

"Close the doors and make him wait for the next one," Marcus suggested, out of pure mischief. Guanyu immediately shook his head as a no and Rob repeated after him, but Callum smiled just as mischievously and pushed the door close button. You could always rely on Callum to be your partner in crime, Marcus thought.

The giant metallic elevator door slid out from one side, and they all saw Christian's jaw fall as he realized what was happening. The next few seconds were a blur - the door closing as if in slow motion, a cacophony of noise from everyone talking at once, and Christian sprinting across the lobby and darting inside at the last possible moment.

The door closed with a ding, the elevator started moving, and Christian, face uncharacteristically vengeful, gave Callum a death glare before leaning over and swiping his hands across the buttons, lighting up good half of them.

"Oh God, what have you done?" Rob whined, and the elevator stopped on floor 3, the first of the buttons Christian had pressed.

"You were gonna leave without me," Christian said accusingly, however Marcus wasn’t ashamed and could see Callum’s expression matching his. In other news, the sky was blue and the water was wet.

"You're half an hour late!" Callum berated, pushing the door close button again because the floor was empty.

"Not half an hour!"

"Still late!"

"Okay!" Guanyu cut in, and Callum backed off. The elevator moved up another two floors and stopped again. The floor was empty, too - only the first two floors of the building were the mall and the rest of the skyscraper was all offices.

"How many floors have we got to stop at?" Rob asked quietly.

"Looks like all of them," Callum huffed and slammed the button once again. Christian's face was clearly saying that he thought it was entirely justified.

The process repeated twice more, on floor 9 and 13, and then stopped before it got to the next glowing number, which was 18. The cabin jerked a little, there was a flicker of lights as they blinked out for a split second, and then there was silence.

The boys looked at one another in various states of panic, then all started talking.

“Oh no,” said Guanyu, completely deadpan.

"Don't tell me we're stuck," said Rob, looking more pained by the minute. 

"I have a bad feeling about this," said Marcus, but Callum wasn’t appreciating his reference because he was glaring at Christian.

"Nice going, loser," Callum said as he tried pressing the emergency button but it looked dead. He pressed it a few more times for good measure, then gave up. Christian scrunched up his face, winced at everyone sheepishly.

"Is the button broken?" asked Guanyu, and Callum let him have a go at it to make sure pressing it does nothing. "Must be automatic then. They will see that the elevator is stuck."

"And if they don't?" Callum asked incredulously, and, having received no reply, sighed.

"Anybody got a phone signal?" Rob said, looking at his screen. "I got nothing."

It took a few moments for everyone to check their phones, all of them shaking heads one by one. Rob's face fell.

"Whatever," said Callum and slid down the wall to sit on the floor. "Even if we did have signal, what then? Call our teams and be like, "excuse me but we got stuck in an elevator, can you get us out"? That would be kind of humiliating, no?"

"I think we're a bit beyond that now," said Rob.

It was quiet for a few minutes, and Marcus tried to think of something to do. He only had one idea, which was better than nothing, so he was the one to break the silence.

"I'm sure we can get this door open."

"No," Rob said immediately.

"What if we're stuck between the floors?" Guanyu asked. Marcus was not giving up.

"There's only one way to find out."

"No," Callum said. "That's stupid and we're not gonna do that." Okay, scratch that about always being able to count on Callum, Marcus thought.

"Exactly," Rob agreed. Christian nodded, still yet to say a word since the elevator had stopped. Marcus pouted at them.

"You're all incredibly boring."

"Boring?" Rob's eyebrows went up. "I don't want to die in a stupid way when there are people already fixing this, probably!"

"And we shouldn't turn up at the tallest building in Bahrain and break the elevators," added Guanyu.

"First time in the country, make the news by breaking their stuff," Callum summed up. "We're all gonna get deported."

There was a chorus of quiet laughs that said Marcus's bright plan was not happening. Oh well.

“I’m not hearing any better ideas,” he huffed and followed Callum’s example to sit on the floor. The tiles were cold but at least appeared to be clean, and Marcus looked up at the other guys who were still standing.

“Uh, we wait?” Christian suggested, in a small voice.

“Great plan,” said Callum and rolls his eyes. “Anyone got a deck of cards or a chessboard?”

“I have a game on my phone we can all play,” Rob said with a smile, sitting down as well. Marcus saw that Callum was about to make another sassy remark and knew Rob might not be ready for that much sarcasm yet, so he quickly cut in.

“It better be not charades or something,” and Rob smiled wider as he sensed the invitation to keep talking. Callum arched an eyebrow at him, and while Rob was digging the phone out of his pocket, Marcus used the time to lightly kick Callum and nod at Christian, sullenly leaning his head back, still very quiet after Callum’s comments.

“It’s called 94%,” Rob started explaining as he showed the loading screen. “It gives a topic or a word or a picture and you have to put in what you think about when you see it.”

Callum reached up to pat Christian’s arm and get his attention, then waved invitingly to join them on the floor. Christian’s face looked childishly gleeful as he sat down; not being able to stretch his long legs fully, he propped them against the opposite wall. Rob scooted closer to them, and Marcus gave Guanyu a look but couldn’t catch his eyes, as he was seemingly more interested in his own phone than Rob’s, although what could be so enthralling in it without network connection was a mystery to Marcus. But it was obvious Guanyu wasn’t going to play, so Callum sighed as if he’d been given detention in school and looked at Rob.

“Well, what’s the first one?”

“Uh,” Rob tapped away as the phrase loaded. “Something you need a ticket for?”

In a matter of seconds, the elevator was full of noise as everyone blurted out guesses, “cinema” (with a grin, from Christian), “plane” (from Callum, who looked very proud of himself for that one) and “bus” (from Marcus himself). Rob obligingly typed it all into his phone, and it gave a ding every time indicating it was one of the most popular choices, then he looked up again.

“There’s more,” he said, scratching his head. “Theater?”

“Train!” said Christian, and it was a good guess, so he grinned happily and Rob was smiling too. Marcus felt old watching how much they were enjoying this middle-schooler game and he knew Callum was feeling the same, but really, there was nothing else to do and they might be stuck here for hours. Marcus didn’t want to think about that, so he made himself think about more things you could need tickets for.

“Tram? Museum? Gallery?” Rob fired suggestions one after another but his phone just vibrated as it rejected the options, and even Callum was looking perplexed now.

“How about a boat or a ferry?” he supplied, but it wasn’t on the list, either.

“There’s only one left,” Rob informed them as he looked over everyone. “Come on, we know this.”

The pause was longer now as everyone was racking their brains trying to think of something.

“Opera?” Marcus asked, and no, that wasn’t it. A few more options were all a miss, and they’d probably be stuck on that level for a long time if Guanyu hadn’t taken pity on them and offered “Parking” very lazily, which, of course, was the missing option.

They did another few rounds, with Christian surprisingly being very good at this and with occasional begrudging help from Guanyu who appeared just as disinterested but always gave correct options. After round four or five Marcus felt like his brain was about to explode and saw the others looking like that, too. 

“How does your head not hurt playing that?” Callum asked, almost lying down on the floor, that’s how low he had slid down. 

“I don’t know?” Rob chuckled as he put the phone down. “It’s fun, I guess.”

“Let me guess, you played chess as a kid or something,” Marcus giggles, because only someone who played logic games for fun could play this game and find it enjoyable. 

“Actually,” said Rob, “I was on a chess _team_. We were champions of my town.” 

“I played chess as a kid,” Callum suddenly said. “I bet I could beat you.”

“We can play,” Rob grabbed his phone again, and of course he had an app for chess, too. Marcus laughed.

“Who’s 75 now, Callum?”

“Shut up,” Callum sat up straight, pushed the phone so it was between them on the floor. “It’s on, prepare to get beaten.”

Rob didn’t answer, and Marcus thought that was way scarier than Callum’s shit talk. Marcus didn’t know anything about chess, though, so he just crawled back a little and met Christian’s gaze.

“Sorry about this,” they said at the same time, and Christian’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Wait, why are you saying sorry?” he asked, clearly puzzled.

“It was me who told Callum to close the door,” Marcus admitted. “I thought it would be funny to make you wait for the next elevator, and instead look what happened.”

“It wouldn’t get stuck if I didn’t press all those buttons, though.”

“Hey,” Marcus bumps his knuckles on Christian’s shoulders. “You couldn’t know it would get stuck. And, uh…” he looked over at Callum, fully engrossed in his chess game. Christian followed his gaze. “That’s how you deal with Callum, by the way. Just one-up him, don’t let him scare you, he only looks evil. Once he gets to know you, he’s a good friend.”

“That is true,” Guanyu said quietly, and they noticed he was standing right over them. “I’ve known him for years and now we’re teammates again, and I’m glad.”

Christian nodded, bit down on a smile.

“Guess there’s a lot of things to learn this year.”

“For me and you both,” Marcus smiled too. “But hey, team ART is gonna kick ass this year.”

There was a loud whoop, and everyone in the small space turned to see it was Callum, victoriously pumping his fists with a smile so wide his face threatened to split in half.

“Oh no,” Marcus said. “Rob, I thought you said you were good!”

Robert just shrugged helplessly, and Callum got up and continued his fist-pumping.

“Yeah, he was! I was just better,”‌ he grinned down at them. “Magic!”

“Good God,” Marcus muttered so that only Christian and Guanyu could hear him. “He’s never going to shut the fuck up about this, watch.”

It could be a very long celebration, but suddenly the lights flickered again and the cabin went down, moved for a few seconds and stopped. Before any of them could react, the door opened as the lights came back on, and they saw a whole bunch of people in overalls and safety helmets, all looking very serious. Marcus became very aware that they were all sprawled across the floor like kindergarteners on a lawn.

Guanyu, who had never sat down at all, was the first one to walk out, looking unbothered as always. The rest of them scrambled to their feet, assured the personnel that they were all fine and were happy to get away from the crime scene as quickly as possible. The floor they got dumped on was a big lobby and a few empty receptionist decks surrounding it, and Marcus thought everyone in their group looked ridiculously out of place in their sports jackets and worn out jeans.

“Does anyone still want to go to the observation deck?” Rob asked carefully. Christian giggled.

“Dude, I think I have a fear of elevators now,” Callum said, and Marcus nodded because he did not feel like getting into another one of those in the nearest year. At the very least.

“I’m sure there are other things to do,” Guanyu said lazily, “for people who are young on the outside but 75 on the inside.” And he turned his phone to them so everyone could see an advert for a mini-golf club, which was on this building’s ground floor.

“We’re going,” Rob said, pushing Callum who was closest to him, to the staircase behind the elevators. “And I’m going to get revenge for the chess game.”

“We’re not going to walk 18 floors down, are we?” Marcus whined because really, that was going to take all day. Rob pushed him too instead of an answer, and Marcus was honestly going to warn him about Callum and his experience with golf but now Rob was on his own.

The staircase was brightly lit, with huge windows and on the sunny side of the building, and as they started down it, Guanyu caught up to Marcus and showed him his phone again. Marcus had a hard time stifling a laugh because it was a video from the elevator, Callum blurting out about 7 wrong guesses at that 94% game, and suddenly it made a lot of sense why Guanyu insisted on not participating and on standing up.

“Have you got all of us on there?”

“No,” Guanyu smiled cunningly. “The only person you have to beat is your teammate.”

“I thought it was ‘the first person’,” said Christian, catching up to them.

And Marcus really didn’t want to think about it, at least not yet, that’s why he made a scene of hugging Christian by the waist (couldn’t really reach his neck), and Christian yelped so loud that Callum and Rob few steps down looked back on them and Rob’s eyebrows went up and Callum just grinned; Christian shouted something about being ticklish which echoed all through the stairwell, and Guanyu just shook his head. In moments like these, Marcus felt that this was different and unique and special, that they could all be rivals and still be friends. And at the start of a new year and a new season in a country he’d never been to, it didn’t feel wrong to be a part of something new.

  
  



End file.
